The Fated Showdown
by Syladin Shadesmar
Summary: Max and Daniel need to let off some steam. What better place to fight than in a boxing match?
1. Chapter 1

"James Patterson!"

"Over here, James!"

"Smile for the Tampa Tribune!"

James stepped backward as the reporters swarmed over his porch. The old wood beneath hundreds of feet creaked dangerously.

_Time for the interview already? _He thought.

Then he shrugged and made his way over to the studio van.

No one noticed the two shadows creeping behind the famous author.

They took off, various paparazzi trailing the vehicle like children would sprint after an ice cream truck.

But the driver knew some tricks to get rid of them.

He swerved into every alley, no matter how narrow, and shot down every detour. By the time they arrived at the studio, not even the most diligent reporters had stuck around, leaving the doorway clear for entry.

The studio served as a movie set and a news set. In one wing, _Flaming Motorcycles _was being filmed, while in the other Chuck Rodgers was waiting for an interview with a particular author.

With Chuck's flare-prone temper about imperfect punctuality in mind, James hurried inside.

"And here we are with James Patterson, author of the bestselling series Maximum Ride and Daniel X! So tell us, how does it feel to be so accomplished in your work?"

"It feels absolutely wonderful, Chuck. To write a book… is like painting a masterpiece. The only difference is that there is no visual- you must actually understand the words to understand the plot. And a story is much more complex than a painting."

"Wow, James! I feel inspired already! Speaking of inspiration, where do you get yours from?"

Just then, a large crash sounded offstage and James' face paled.

"I'm afraid we'll have to answer that later," He said, jumping to his feet and rushing toward the kitchen.

The studio's kitchen was not a kitchen; in fact, it barely resembled one.

The dining table served as a make up table, vanity, desk, and emergency prop when necessary. The refrigerator housed both fruit smoothies and fake zombie masks (from the movie _Thrills and Chills_, of course). And the microwave was nothing more than a black box that needed to be thrown out from rebellious actors putting flammable items in it. The only reason it was called the kitchen was because it was the only place you could get a free smoothie form the fridge. Plus, the table usually didn't have gum underneath it.

And now it was upside down.

* * *

It all started back at James' house.

"Bet you can't catch me!" Max jeered.

She flew high above the couch- her head was now touching the living room ceiling, and her feet dangled out of reach of Daniel's hands.

"Bet I can," he said. He used his high jumping ability to stand face to face for a second, then fall and grab her leg. Max was unable to hold up the extra weight, and they both plummeted to the couch. Then they started fighting.

Within minutes, the throw pillows were shredded, the table split in half, and the TV was toppled.

James walked in the room and sighed.

"Would you two cut it out? Jeez, a man can't get any sleep between you two."

He sighed again.

"Well, if you're gonna write books about us, you have to accept us into your home,"

Daniel said reasonably.

James shivered. "At least only one character per book is allowed out. I don't know what I'd do if the entire flock was here, or if Ergent Seth managed to break out of the first book of Daniel X."

Max looked offended. "And what's wrong with my flock?" she queried suspiciously.

"Er…nothing," said James smoothly. Just then, a camera flashed outside.

Daniel and Max disappeared out the window while James opened the door to greet hundreds of reporters.

_Time for the interview already? _He thought.

* * *

_Back to the present..._

James glanced at the ruined kitchen and turned his head to Max and Daniel.

"He/She started it," they said simultaneously.

"She called me a freak."

"He called me a freak first!"

"Yeah, not before you dropped a microwave on my head!"

"Not before you threw popcorn at me, calling me a pigeon!"

They got up and started to squabble again.

James sighed.

"Enough already!" he shouted.

Both looked up in surprise.

He steeled his nerves.

"This is the reason Wisty got locked away in the closet," he said.

"She didn't follow my rules."

"Maybe you shouldn't have given her the whole 'human torch' superpower," Daniel muttered.

"And maybe you should have specified the rule of trying not to burn the house down…" said Max.

"Quiet! Or else in the next book, you'll both get run over by a bus!"

The room became really quiet.

"I have an idea," he said quietly.

* * *

This is where I come into the story.

Regular, normal, fifteen year old Alice Catherine Nile*.

That's me.

I logged on to my computer one night, returning upstairs from dinner.

Then I continued the novel I was writing.

It was about two people: an Angel and a Demon who were in love.

I'll show you an excerpt.

"_Daron," Erin said. "When will I see you again?"_

_Daron's white robes swished around his feet as he shuffled uncomfortably._

"_I'm afraid this is our last meeting," he said quietly._

_Erin's eyes welled up with tears._

"_No…" she said._

_They knew what had to be done: before they departed forever._

_Their first kiss._

_First they embraced each other…_

No sooner had I written that was there a snap and two people appeared in my room out of thin air, hugging each other.

But I was used to it by now.

_They leaned in toward each other…_

They did the same in real life, never taking their eyes off of the other's.

_And…_

Soon enough, the two people were making out on my bed.

I sighed happily. I was finally done with the story!

I turned to the two lovebirds and scowled.

"Out," I said sternly. "The book is done. You can leave now."

They vaporized.

* * *

Outside my window…

"This is the girl James wanted us to meet?" Max said.

"She can create _two _characters from _one _book. Even James can only do one character per story," said Daniel.

"That is pretty impressive… she must be a pretty talented writer. Maybe she can help us stop fighting."

Daniel nodded. "Let's hope," he said and they crashed through my window.


	2. Chapter 2

I spun around to find broken glass scattered everywhere.

Then I saw Max and Daniel.

My first thought was, _Oh hello there, nice weather out today._ Then I cleared my head of impulsive sarcastic thoughts and made my way over to them.

Then I screamed.

"OH MY GOD! You're _Maximum Ride!_"

Then I turned to Daniel. Only, I didn't really know who he was at first.

"You must be…" I trailed off pointedly.

He bowed, fake-humbly.

"Daniel X, at your service."

Then I screamed again.

"OH MY GOD! You're _Daniel X!"_

He smiled, pleased that I'd remembered him.

But the next newcomer wouldn't be so lucky.

"Wait," said a breathless voice from outside the window. A young girl climbed onto the windowsill.

She stared at me expectantly.

I stared back quizzically.

"Well? Aren't you going to scream, 'Oh my God, it's Wisty!'?"

"Errr…that name doesn't ring a bell…" I said.

"How did she escape from the closet?" Daniel muttered.

Wisty sighed.

"I'm from _Witch and Wizard_," She explained.

"Ohhh," I said back, finally comprehending. "You mean that lame spoof James Patterson wrote about Harry Potter… or in his opinion, _Gary Blotter and the Guild of Rejects_?"

"Man, was that a funny line," snickered Max.

Wisty's lower lip started trembling.

She hurled herself from the window, crying.

We listened to her moan when she hit the ground.

"Freak," said Daniel.

Max's eyes took on a fiery sheen. "What…did…you…just…call…me…"

She balled up her fists.

"Wait-no-I meant-"

Daniel's protests died out when Max bashed in his windpipe.

While her hand was still on his throat though, he grasped her other hand inches before it smashed into his face and brought it back around to Max's.

More fighting ensued.

While all this was happening, I was trying to figure out why they were in my room in the first place.

Obviously, they were from a book. Two different books, in fact. And both of these novels had been written by James Patterson. From what I could gather from my own experiences with characters, only the author of a story could make his characters come to life and interact with them. They were also the only people who could see the characters.

So why could I see characters that I hadn't written about?

And so went the great process of deduction.

(Basically, that means I read way too much Sherlock Holmes.)

My cell phone rang.

I picked it up.

It was an unknown number.

"Hello. This is James Patterson."

I dropped the phone.

And screamed.

Then, rationally, I picked it up again.

"Please don't do that," said James. "Anyway, I take it that you have received my pests… er, characters?"

I nodded breathlessly.

"Well, I take it from the silence you are nodding. The reason I sent them to you is because the are having… issues."

Max hurled a vase of flowers at Daniel, but missed and hit the wall. I found my voice.

"You can say that again," I muttered.

"I cannot stop them from fighting. They just won't listen to me. But you're a pretty creative writer. And a strong one, too. Maybe you can help them become friends. That's all I want you to do: just write a story about them apologizing, or something like that."

"Uh, okay," I said uncertainly. As an after thought I added a question.

"How on earth did you get my phone number?"

"I have my connections," he said mysteriously.

Then the line went dead.

So now I had two freaks that hated each other, another one sprawled unconscious on the ground, and a very weird author spying on me.

But, that's life.

"I should get started on that story," I muttered.

Half an hour later, everything went wrong.

At first, Max had acted out everything I'd written: being nice to Daniel, giving him ice cream. And Daniel had done the same.

But soon came the part where they actually had to apologize to each other.

This is what I wrote:

"_I'm sorry, Daniel. I shouldn't have said all of those mean things to you," said Max._

"_That's all right. I forgive you," replied Daniel._

This is what happened.

"I'm sorry Daniel. I shouldn't have said- HEY WAIT A MINUTE! WHY DO I HAVE TO APOLOGIZE FIRST!"

I scowled.

"Fine. Let's make Daniel go first-"

"No way am I going to apologize to that stubborn flying pig!"

"Who are you calling a pig, you elephant-obsessed freak!"

And on they went.

Then it dawned on me: they were _both _stubborn and full of pride- neither one would yield.

So in order to cure them of their stubbornness…

"I have to prove which one is better," I concluded.

"Hey guys! Break it up already!"

"WHAT!" They both shouted.

I smiled.

"I have a solution," I said confidently.

"We're taking it to the ring."


	3. Chapter 3

Before Daniel could ask any questions (I had a crush on him, so that made it hard answering questions directly) I hurried to the computer and typed hurriedly.

…_and stood before them a gigantic boxing ring, _I finished typing.

A gigantic boxing ring materialized in my room.

Max and Daniel stared up in awe.

"Whoa…" said Daniel.

"She can summon not only multiple characters, but scenes as well?" Max said admiringly.

They turned to look at me.

From they way they both stared, you'd think I was God or something.

Or maybe I'd grown an extra head that I couldn't see.

"Well, get in already," I said.

They shrugged at each other and stepped inside.

I returned to my keyboard, but then realized something. Last time I wrote for them to apologize. But I had figured out that the reason that wouldn't work was because they weren't _my _characters. I could still make them appear with James' permission, but I couldn't completely control their actions.

So I decided to try a new tactic.

"Why aren't you typing?" said Max.

"Yeah, lemme fight her already," said Daniel.

I shook my head.

"Nope. We're going ad-lib. No typing, just you having it out." Before the shock could register on their faces, I rang that bell-thingy and waited for them to fight.

I prayed my theory would work.


	4. Chapter 4

**Please don't hate me for making fun of Wisty! I knew I had to include someone from Witch and Wizard, because James Patterson wrote it, too. But there wasn't any room for a threeway crossover- the fight was between Max and Daniel only. Then I realized I could poke just a little fun at Wisty… so that's when I included her by saying she got locked in the closet.**

**But then I got Writer's Block (a very serious ailment) And I couldn't think of anything else, so I threw her out the window. I just want to say that I am sorry- because I'm a fan of Whit and Wisty too!**

**P.S. Alice Catherine Nile is not my real name. In fact, I even put a pun in her name. If you find the pun (it's a bit tricky, and not really **_**that**_** funny) you can either PM me and tell me about it or just ignore it. **

**Okay! On to the story!**

"All right," Daniel began, "I have to warn you, I don't like hitting gir-"

Max's fist sailed into his face and he landed on the far wall.

"Come on, get back up, Daniel! Get up!" I shouted.

He shook his head forcefully, trying to clear it before another punch came around.

Max sneered.

"I hope you're all right," she said in a falsetto voice.

Daniel swung a punch, but Max sidestepped it.

"Maybe the reason you don't like hitting girls is because you hit like one!" she taunted him again.

But Daniel gathered up his strength and picked up his gun-

"Howcome he gets a gun?" Max said.

She glared at me.

"I swear that wasn't me," I said. "I'm not even at the computer."

I hurried there now, and no sooner had I finished typing did Daniel's gun transform into a can of Sillystring.

Good thing too, because at that moment he fired.

And absolutely drenched Max in some kind of liquid that _definitely _wasn't sillystring.

"IT SAYS SHAKE FIRST, YOU DUMMY!" she roared.

He looked down at the can's side.

"Oh yeah, you're right. But why did it change…"

He trailed off as he saw me at the computer.

"You interfered," he said.

"Well, I want you to try to defeat each other, not kill each other. So let's lay down some ground rules," I said. "Rule one: you can use your powers, but only to a certain extent. For example, Daniel can create anything he wants- but no firearms. And Max can fly wherever she wants- but she can't use her power to escape the ring."

"Like I would do that," she said.

I sighed.

"Okay, let's redo the match. Round one will begin in a couple minutes."

They groaned.

"But I was winning," Max said plaintively.

"Too bad. One of you abused the rules."

"I didn't know there were rules in the first place!" Daniel said angrily.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry… I got preoccupied with school… I lost ideas… I had no clue what I was doing… I haven't been on fanfiction in months. Don't worry, I will FINISH THIS STORY IF IT KILLS ME. I'm hoping it won't.**

_Ding!_

Max's fist sailed over air as Daniel sidestepped her punch and countered with a karatechop to her back. This made only made her mad.

They sparred several minutes at a standstill, until Max gained the upper edge by flying straight into the air and landing on Daniel just as he was about to jab at her face. He wobbled blindly as she covered his eyes.

A snap happened next to me, and Daron blinked. Erin appeared right beside him.

"Wait… how'd I get here?" he asked. Then he saw the fight.

"Woah! Erin, wanna join them?"

"Sure. Let's go!"

Before I could stutter 'no', they stepped into the chaos. Daron sided with Max because they both had wings, and Erin with Max to be fair. The fighter stepped back, exhausted, and examined their new foes.

"Who's the loser with the bird wings?" said Daniel.

"That would be me," Daron and Max said simultaneously. "Who's the idiot who sided with alien scum?"

"I dedicate my life to ridding the earth of scum. How rude of you to classify me as one of them," Daniel retorted. Erin looked at Daron sadly.

"Daron, why would you call him that? He's really nice."

"Erin, can't you see? He's a loser. Come along with us, the people who can fly."

Max and Daron punched knuckles. They continued talking like this, moving downward in their relationship.

I panicked. In the love story I'd written, Daron and Erin never had an argument. There was something seriously wrong.

As they continued arguing, my computer buzzed to life. The Angel and Demon word document was unraveling itself, moving sequences of letters off the page and replacing them with new ones.

"Impossible," I breathed. The words were the independent variable; the characters were the dependent. The words were the only things that changed the characters, and the characters could not change the words. That was what I had seen earlier with Max and Daniel, when my first tactic had failed.

Then again, James had hinted that I was special. Maybe I was such a powerful writer, my power went both ways.

I stood and said, "Enough!"

They stopped squabbling.

"I have a test for you. If you pass, you can go back to James. If not, then you have to…" I struggled to think of a punishment. "Repaint my house."

"What color?" asked Daron.

"Every one in the rainbow."

They groaned collectively.

"What's the test?"

"Each of you has to tell me your greatest skill and your greatest weakness. If you guess wrong… painting time."

They looked at me, confused.

I rolled my eyes.

"Get started," I goaded. They all shrugged and huddled. I caught bits of what they were saying.

"You're annoying. That much is true."

"You aren't exactly agreeable either."

"Well I know that I am definitely the most gorgeous. No one can deny that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"No offense, but Erin, you're ugly."

Erin gasped.

"Time's up," I called. They lined up.

"I just want to let everyone know that I am beautiful. And I have no flaws," said Erin.

"This is stupid, but…" Max began. "I'm good at giving orders. And…sometimes on windy days it's harder for me to fly. But that is NOT a weakness."

"My greatest skill? Hah," said Daniel. "I can run faster than a train. And make friends out of thin air. My only problem is that my parents are dead."

"And Daron, what about you?"

"Well, I keep the angelic world in pretty good shape. I just can't keep my perfect little girlfriend over there from ragging on me all the time."

Erin made a face.

"okay," I said, "Time to tell you all how you did…"

"Wait!" Wisty climbed up to my window again and stepped into the room. "I know exactly what you all are. You," she said to Erin, "Are beautiful, but full of conceit."

Erin denied this immediately.

"Max? She's loyal and trustworthy, but really bossy."

Max huffed.

"Daniel is bent on killing his parents' murderer. Perseverance is a good trait to have. However, you suck at playing the clarinet."

Daniel scoffed. "Since when have I had the time to practice clarinet? And why would I want to?"

"_The clarinet is my favorite. Diss it one more time,"_ She said menacingly.

"I said, why would I want to-"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed, and lit herself on fire while dragging him out the window to pulverize him.

"Oookay then," I said, moving on. "Daron, you-"

"are perfect inside and out. You just don't realize it."

Wisty reappeared at the window. Daniel dragged himself inside after her. His clothes were lined with scorch marks and his smoke wafted from his head.

"Your hair is on fire," I told him. He didn't take notice.

"So. We were strangely interrupted by Wisty, who was spying on us, but that doesn't matter because only one of you is right."

I paused dramatically. "The winner is.."

* * *

"I think I'm going to kill myself," said Wisty.

"Hey! At least you got the ground level. We have to be on the roof, just because we can fly!"

"At least you're not beautiful, and you're nails are too ugly to mess up."

"Shut up, Erin!"

Daniel relaxed in his chaise, sipping lemonade. "Delicious," he said to me. Then he whispered, "hey, was I actually right, or is this just because you have a crush on me?"

"Both," I said back. "Plus, I didn't want Wisty to know that she was right either. Without an extra helper, everyone else might not have been motivated to work."

As I watched, Max and Erin started to fight over a paint can.

"Good times, Alice."

"Yes. Good times."

Our glasses clinked together.

**I died writing it, but it's done. It's not the best ending to a story, but oh well. Thx 4 reading!**


End file.
